I was getting really tired of clicking “No Thanks” to these popups so I searched Google for a solution. I selected this link. After reading this entire thread I have some advice for Balasubramanian, Aravind Gnanamurthy, Avinash, Rajarajan Sooiyachanth, Kishore, Sreedevi Padmakumar, Rajendra Sekar, Hariharkumar Lakshmi and ShriThillak Ravi. That’s right, nine different people all reading from the same script in Bangalore saying “we apologize”, “thank you for your feedback”, “we do understand your concerns”, etc, etc, etc. It’s actually more maddening than the popups and downright insulting. None of you should respond to any of these messages again, you’re actually making it worse and trying everyone’s patience. If you respond to this with another “We do understand your concern” or “thank you for your feedback” it will show how truly clueless you are and I will cut and paste the many responses to make a fantastic YouTube video of this fiasco. It may actually go viral.
I have been using AVG for years and like many of the folks on this thread, have a significant number of clients. I’m a reasonable man; I will continue to click “No Thanks” every day for two more weeks. The developers can fix this in an hour and put it in an update. If it’s not resolved by then I will move on. It’s quite simple really, and I suspect if they (the actual development team, not the support group) don’t address this post haste it will have a significant enough business impact that it may not be possible for AVG to recover, it is that serious.
I have the same problem with the "Your online security is incomplete" popup. I have AVG free version. I have gone to the options and disabled everything, and I have the gaming feature enabled that is supposed to stop AVG from disturbing me while I am playing a game. But this popup still pops up during gaming. Which is very bad, because it doesn't just pop up, it also turns the screen black. Which is very bad because I play car racing games. So AVG causes me to crash, and the last 30 minutes of practice session, and 15 minutes of qualification session, and the race itself, is totally ruined by this. I created an account here just to point out that it is not just a pop up that shows, it kills the game! I will now uninstall this blackmailware and try some other anti-virus software instead. I am willing to pay to get rid of this popup, but I will not pay to those who blackmail me. Goodbye.
Hello John,
We apologize if an AVG product did not meet your expectations. Our main goal is to keep our customers happy.
AVG carefully monitors the quality of our products and the service we provide, therefore all feedback http://avgclick.me/AVGfeedback from our customers is important to us. If you have a specific experience with AVG products that you would like to share with us, we would appreciate hearing about it.
Please feel free to contact us for any further assistance. Thank you.
Seriously, what's the point of having an anti-virus if it's just as bad as the spamware?
it is frustrating when avg fuck up your game every half hour
it is not nice when we play need for speed or battlefield and lost our game because of stupid avg notification!!
I have the paid for version of AVG fo 5 computers and am getting pop up ads for their other products kicking me off when I am game playing. It seems pretty obvious that these cannot be turned off from the above postings so I shall certainly not be renewiing when it expires. This AVG ad campaign seems more likely to lose existing customers then to win new ones
I tried deleting the folders mentioned a couple of times but that did not kill the latest stupid pop-up offering some upgrade to some 'Internet Security', whatever the hell that is (don't know, don't care). What I did note however was that when that popped up again (much to my annoyance) was that in Task Manager there was a process called 'campaign.avg.com blah blah…'. So, the ad itself apparently is not some static code in the application itself but merely a vehicle to show some web content in that window.
Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc and find the hosts file. Open in Notepad. At the bottom add this line:
127.0.0.1 campaign.avg.com
Save
So far the pop-up hasn't activated again, probably due to there being no content accessible for display.
If this doesn't work, goodbye AVG. No more chances. This is an incredibly ill-concieved ad campaign that will crash your business like it crashed my desktop.
So after months of constant pop ups asking me to upgrade my AVG package came a week of rest...
Then every day for the past week I have been asked "Would you like to upgrade your experience" and every day I have said no.
Today I was asked again by AVG would you like to upgrade, this time I said yes.
I uninstalled AVG and installed Avira.
Problem solved.
I can't imagin that after all these millions of complaints, not just here but in various sites on the Internet, the AVG team is still giving a deaf ear to its customers.
They claim that these ads are "legitimate"! What on earth is legitimate about those unsolicited pop-ups? I'll start an anti-AVG campaign soon and I'll keep you updated on where to post.
I believe that unless they lose customers dramatically they will always react stupidly, and will continue to ask for a screen shot!!!
As per @Charles Boyce some time ago
I found an answer through some easy googling that seems to have worked…there are three folders in the AVG folder in Program Files that you need to delete, but you have to disable avg first…
1. Disable AVG self protection:
Right click the AVG icon in the taskbar (near the clock)
Select to Temporarily Disable AVG Protection
Agree the default timeout - usually 10 minutes?
2. Open My Computer or Windows Explorer and Navigate to:
C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG201x\ … for 32bit systems (201x means 2013 or 2014)
C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG201x\ for 64bit systems
3. Delete the following three folders: Awacs, Banners, Tuneup
Do not delete anything else you see inside the AVG201x folder.
If you accidentally delete anything else go to the recycle bin and restore it.
Note: If you have already paid for the Tuneup addon then keep this folder
4. Close the My Computer/Explorer window
5. Enable AVG self protection:
Right click the AVG icon in the taskbar (near the clock)
Select to Enable AVG Protection - takes 20 seconds or so to fully activate.
I stole this info from AVG 2013/2014 - Disable the Advertising Tiles and Panel | Wilders Security Forums
I'll be really surprised if my post doesn't get deleted however…
Hello Paul,
We are sorry for the delay in response.
You can refer the following link to disable AVG pop-up for other products (https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?urlname=AVG-Privacy-settings)
If you still get any pop-up from AVG, please take screenshot and share it with us.
If you all have noticed, The response that AVG gives to all the people is really Automated with the same answer which does not answer any solutions to the problem that everyone is having with the POPUPS.
AVG should be aware that a with their intent of these popups can be considered malware/spam-ware and could cause a class action lawsuit against the company and a hefty fine.
Now if I were the CEO of AVG, I would really think about this and remove the ads, popups that AVG is advertising from their FREE and PAID Antivirus to avoid a class action lawsuit.
AVG has lost focus on what made them great. Tried many ways to remove their pop ups only to have them return. At our last quarterly meeting someone recommended a change from AVG to Panda for our paid accounts at work and no one objected. I'll be going with another anti-virus program as well. It was great while it lasted AVG, thanks for 7 years of excellent service.
I came here to find a solution, only to read that the best thing to do is change to another provider. I created an account just to say the following. I have been a fan of AVG for over 15 years, and have recommended it to many during my years in IT Support. So it's a pity the relationship must end, but the infuriating pop-ups are totally unacceptable.
Bye bye AVG.
Thanks for the heads up for 360 Total Security. I've been an AVG user for well over a decade and am so done with all the pop-ups. It's a total shame that this company is shooting itself in the foot (arms, head, torso, etc.) over something as foolish as not allowing their users to turn off the pop-ups.
This is the beauty of a free-enterprise system. There's always competition just waiting around the next corner!
Thanks for the memories, AVG!
Hello everyone,
I'd like to announce that it's possible to change the frequency of the advertising pop-ups (even completely disable in paid versions) in the recently updated version of AVG. Please visit this article (http://avgread.me/popups) to find out more.
Regards,
Jan
Hi all, I'm another PC tech but unlike some I represent a lot of low paid workers who cannot always afford yearly upgrades for their devices.
I run multiply AV programs on different computers for testing, AVG and its pop ups are also starting to annoy me.
Also note a lot of my customers who get the free version with an expensive repair job (to help keep their costs down), are told about the pros and cons of free V paid and often update to the paid version.
I can not in good conscience keep recommending AVG and other now recommend AVIRA and AD-Aware Antivirus.
Interesting to note that some of AVG extras get picked up when running adware and junkware removal programs!
Just my 2c: Popups that can't be disabled are a piss poor "advertising campaign". Users shouldn't have to consider deleting folders from installation folders to stop popups.
I understand that when I get "Free" AVG there will be something for you to make money off of… it's important for you to put forth those offers… Its important for your company to get paid.
It's also important not to take it too far and annoy your prospective customers.
I didn't consider disabling the ads or replacing your product UNTIL you took it too far.
Signed,
Just another annoyed user of Free Avg.
I've had the very same problems. At one time, AVG was a great piece of software. It detected malware and viruses, easily removed them, was on par with McAffee, and wasn't an annoying piece of adware that constantly implored you to upgrade. But I found an excellent solution to this problem.
I installed Avira and got rid of AVG.
I also have a paid version of the software. Through this thread I learned how to turn off the ad popups (the most recent one resulted from clicking on a previous one which tried to sell me software I already had installed on this workstation.) BUT I SHOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO. This is really really poor user experience. I understand that the 'price' of free software is to have the developer try and upsell you occasionally, but once you buy, all advertizing, particularly intrusive ones you can't extinguish immediately, should stop. This is a triumph of some idiot in marketing over more sensible heads I think. You need to fix this.